Who we are

Elena Bennett

Elena is a professor at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, where she is the co-chair of ecoSERVICES. Her research focuses on the provision of multiple ecosystem services in working landscapes. Prior to coming to McGill, she worked as a postdoc on the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. She wants to have a Good Anthropocene so she can leave a hopeful, friendly, and safe planet for her two kids, Talia and Simon.

Reinette (Oonsie) Biggs

Oonsie is a researcher based jointly at the Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University in Sweden and the Centre for Complex Systems in Transition at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. Her research focuses on tipping points linked to regime shifts and transformations in interdependent social-ecological systems, and the impacts of such large abrupt shifts on ecosystem services and human well-being. Oonsie returned to South Africa after studying and working in the US and Sweden, and is passionate about bringing a southern African perspective into discussions on a desirable, sustainable and just Anthropocene.

Albert Norström

Albert is Executive Director for the Future Earth Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS) and a researcher at the Stockholm Resilience Centre. His broad research interests include regime shifts in marine systems and the dynamics contributing to the reliable production of ecosystem services in social-ecological systems. He believes that the Good Anthropocene begins by stimulating discussion and reflection on radical ideas for regional and global transformation, and the values that underlie these.

Laura Pereira

Laura is a post doc at the University of Cape Town working on transformations in the food system. She uses social-ecological systems theory to understand the contribution that underutilised crop species and traditional knowledge can make to a just and sustainable food system and is particularly interested in the role of chefs as innovators in this space. Originally from South Africa, she has studied and worked in the UK and USA and her research has included studies on South Africa, Brazil, Colombia, Nigeria and Mozambique. Her vision for a Good Anthropocene is one where the world is a much more just place and she believes that the food system is a good place to start such a transformation.

Garry Peterson

Garry is a professor at the Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University in Sweden. His work focusses on strategies for understanding and navigating the complex and surprising intertwined dynamics of people and nature.. Prior to moving to Sweden he worked in Canada, the USA, Suriname, and Japan. He has two children, Freija and Torsten, and hopes the Anthropocene he will leave them will be becoming more diverse, more fair and more sustainable.

Ciara Raudsepp-Hearne

Ciara Raudsepp-Hearne is a researcher and consultant based in Montreal, Canada. Her work centers on ecosystem service theory and implementation, as well as on sustainability, resilience, and futures thinking. Ciara has partnered directly with governments and NGOs at different scales that are trying to operationalize ecosystem service concepts within policies and programs. Ciara believes that a great Anthropocene will be built by engaging with each other at all levels in our lives. To this end she volunteers with multiple community projects, and plays outside regularly with her family and neighbours.